Want Your Own Desktop PCB Printer?

The BreadBox PCB printer controls things like timing, mixing of chemicals, and agitation to produce really professional looking, predictable, and repeatable boards.

I just received a rather cheery email from Joshua R. Perk starting, "Hey Max, I love the work you do, so I thought I might write."

He certainly started off on the right foot (LOL). Joshua went on to say: "We've created the first desktop circuit board printer that makes it easy for any maker to etch circuits at home. We're Kickstarting, and would love to hear your feedback." Of course, I immediately bounced over to Joshua's Kickstarter page to feast my orbs on his BreadBox desktop circuit board printer.

Unusually for me, I can keep this short and sweet. My immediate feedback for Joshua is "I want one!" As he points out in this video, the maker community is booming. Microcontroller development boards like the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi are really affordable, thereby allowing us to do all sorts of interesting things. However, when it comes to implementing homegrown circuits like the DIY MSGEQ7-Based Audio Spectrum Analyzer I built a few days ago, most of us are limited to using solderless breadboards.

Ideally, once we have a prototype working, like the breadboard on the lefthand side of the image below, we'd like to transfer it to a professional-looking printed circuit board (PCB), like the one on the righthand side of the image.

Joshua R. Perk shows a PCB created using the BreadBox desktop printer.

A variety of low-volume PCB services are available to us, but they aren't cheap if you are doing a lot of this sort of thing. Also, it can take several weeks before you get your board(s) back in your hand. The thought of a desktop PCB printer is certainly appealing.

Initially, I had dreams that you would be able to upload a standard design file to the BreadBox via a USB connection, press the "Go" button, and sit back while it printed your design, etched the copper, and drilled the holes for you. I'm sorry to relate that life is not quite so sweet. As you'll see in the Kickstarter video, it's up to you to draw or transfer your design to the bare board. Then you use the BreadBox for the etching, after which you'll still have to drill the holes through the board.

Even so, this is nothing to be sneezed at. Etching your own boards in the family's Pyrex cooking dishes is problematic at best (and the chemicals tend to smell really bad). The great thing about the BreadBox is that Joshua and his team have performed loads of experiments to get everything just so.

As Joshua says on his Kickstarter page, the project's backers went out to get "some of the best minds we could lay our hands on" (which certainly gives one pause for thought). As a result, after you've poured in the chemicals and pressed the "Go" button, the BreadBox handles things like timing, mixing the chemicals, and agitation to produce a really professional looking, predictable, and repeatable board.

All I know is that I would love to have one of these little beauties sitting on my desk right now. What say you?

Awesome project Joshua, congratulations. Let me get this right - your machine prints the PCB as well as etching it? You refer to "Compatible" PCB - is this the pre-coated UV sensitive stuff or something else? And what PCB design packages will it work with? Obviously you could do 2 layers only with this, and no through hole plating? but this would not be a hassle for me (and many other hobbyist level users). I'd be keen to know more, thanks.

Getting quick-turn bare PCBs via the web isn't a big issue for me. Costs and delivery times are reasonable for small boards. And I don't want to have to work with or store etching chemicals.

The major stumbling block for me is populating the boards with small surface mount components. It's a hassle packaging, lableing and shipping off components, providing special build instructions, paying for NREs, ect. I'd much rather have a desktop based solution that can apply solder paste, place components and reflow solder so I don't have to farm out the prototype build.

I think it would be better to bring down the price of mail order one off PCBs through automation. The machine acts sort of like an internet controlled vending machine where the user makes selections that get charged to their credit card, paypal or whatever. The machine would be operated over the internet by the user and mail out the PCBs all automatically. Only periodic maintenance and service would require a Tech.

Thank you for the kind words, Max! Our first concept of the BreadBox was an all-in-one solution but it turned out to be quite... a project (to say the least). We've decided, while it might not be as elegant, some things cannot be done as well when combined. When the BreadBox pushes out of production, we are releasing an auto driller that identifies through-holes and (well, as the name implies...) auto-drills them.

Hello! You are absolutely correct. In our recent project update, we explained the real purpose of using the word "desktop" and of course, we are stressing safety in chemical exposure and also environmental waste!

I suspect that the day will come also but my guess is that what we need for that is a 3D printer that can print both metallic (or conducive) material and insulating (non- conductive) material on the same "level". No mess with etching or any of that and you could use the same printer to make a case for your project. Of course, the materials would have to be compatible with soldering which makes the problem more difficult. The thing is that once you have something like that, the possibilities do not stop at two layer boards.

If soumeone built something like that at a reasonable cost, I'd buy it.

If I knew more about material properties and mechanical design, I'd try to build one. As it is my knowlege of material properties is primarily from a university class that was more years ago than I'd care to admit.

@tenbest: I've done self etched boards, as well as have access to a board router, but the hassle of not having plated vias and holes has pushed me well past the pain threshold.

On the one hand I congratulate these guys for not biting off more than they can chew, as it were -- I'm notorious for over-engineering everything.

On the other hand, I agree with you in that what I really want is somthing that I can connect to my computer -- download the design files for a double-sided through-hole board -- and press the "Go" button -- and for the unit print the layout and drill the holes and etch the board and give me a double-sided board with plated-through holes.